January

As of the 24th January the cheques (or "checks" - let's not argue) have started trickling in. Thanks to everyone who has taken the plunge so far. A few people purchasing prints have included extra money for the book so it occurred to me that it might be smart to put ALL that money into the book account. By that method the total is now well past $1000 Australian.

February

Well February is just about over and although the cheques keep trickling in we are not anything like half-way to the total. So if we are going to make the April 30th deadline I am going to have to up the ante: from now on everyone who subscribes (including those who have already) can choose their favorite of my pics and I will print it 8 by 10 inches, archival, fibre-based and signed - all for the same price. Unless you all ask for the same picture they will be an incredibly limited edition.... so, along with your cheque tell me which image you want.

March

Yeah, I'm running late again but I have news: all the pictures for the book have been chosen (60 in all), the page size is 21 by 26 cm, the cover design is complete (it is based on the design of this site), the scanning of the images and overall design is happening as we speak... and I can now definitely say that the book will go ahead. I just can't tell you exactly when but it will probably be after April.

This means that rather than the "either/or" situation I can now say that every subscriber is entitled to a free, archivally-processed 8 by 10 inch print of their choice right now. So if you have already subscribed let me know which one you want.

April

Needless to say I had no idea how long the process would take when I set out upon this journey. Guy Morton (of Image Alchemy) has done the scans and I am currently doing the spotting and duotoning myself to save money. The steady stream of subscriptions has paid for all the prepress so far... but the next step in the process (making the negatives from which the printer will make his plates) is one of the most expensive and I am going to have to raise a loan. Wish me luck.

May/June

We are now looking at late July for a printing date (sooner if we can get it together). I have added one extra picture but reduced the size of the book from 100 pages to 96 - because that is divideable by 16. The section stitching requires six, sixteen page "booklets". This means some of the pictures will be smaller reproductions, i.e. two to a page rather than one, and the layout generally tightened to save the four pages and make room for the extra picture. I have nearly finished duotoning the pictures in Photoshop but my designer - the wonderful Lorinda Taylor - has exams in July and that may slow us down. I am considering making the 200 copies reserved for subscribers hardcover (clothbound) for an extra $20 for libraries and collectors. Still $50 (Australian) for subscribers.

July

Yes, I know, I am running late with this update and you are getting impatient with the whole process anyway - imagine how I feel! - but you wouldn't believe the hassles I have had trying to keep this project on the rails. Part of them stemming from me being a complete amateur and not realising what I had let myself in for... and a lot of it from living in a small town. However, this coming week, beginning 22nd July, we will begin printing the cover, which has been ready since April, and the week after we finish the final layout of the book and take it to the printers. Have patience my friends, the end is nigh.

August

Another setback: my proposed designer has abruptly quit at the last minute and I have to recruit another very quickly. I don't know how long this will delay things - the layout is really only a week's work. The printer is ready to go and getting very impatient with me and my indigestion is getting worse.

It is now the 21st of August (or August 20 if you are American), two days after my birthday - which I apparently share with Bill Clinton - and things are looking up. I have found a designer, Alison Wilson, and she has finished making the QuarkXpress document of my book look as though it was created by someone who knew what they were doing. Tomorrow I take it to Photo Lith who will output the negatives (from which the plates will be made). This will cost over $4000 and soak up the last of my funds for the time being. So the timing of the final stage - the printing and binding - is uncertain because it will cost an additional $8,500! But at least we are back on the rails.

 

Yesterday, the 26th, I got the negatives back from the imaging people as well as bromide proofs that they had made from them. The quality was superb! Seeing the images on my screen in Photoshop did not prepare me for this smoothness that did no disservice to the original print. Admittedly this was only the black image and not the full duotone but I was pleased.

Today I took the negatives to my printer and showed him the proofs. I then realised that to this point he had no idea the book included nudes. This was a serious technical error on my part because now he has gone off to check with lawyers for legal problems, with the union and the workers who will do it to see if they have any problem with nudity. I am so naive, I keep forgetting how contentious my sort of work is. Wouldn't it be weird to get this far and be refused by the printer!

September

The printer is cool, the Law and the Union are cool. I have two weeks to raise the remaining money before the presses roll. To get my money back I will have to bump the retail of the softcover edition up to A$35.00 which means those who have already subscribed are getting a real bargain. 150 copies will be hardcover at A$50 each and an ultra-limited edition of 50 hardcover copies (numbered and signed like the subscriber copies) will have a real print of an image never before published tipped in.... that will be a steal at $100.

Well, the printer hasn't started yet (26th Sept.) but said he "might" start next week. He seemed offended when I asked, as though it was none of my business and he would print the book when he was bloodywell ready. As you know the printer I wanted refused the job because it involved pictures of nude women and referred it to another printer who has now had it for nearly a month. I sometimes wish I had got interested in stamp collecting instead!

October

Yes I do use these updates to let off steam - very therapeutic! Today (3rd October) I talked to the printer. No he hadn't started the job yet, he had hoped to this week but it's only a small printery and people were off sick (and I suspect a few more profitable jobs might have jumped the queue). Then I explained to him that the book was costing me a lot of money (by my standards) and to have any hope of getting it back in the foreseeable future I need to complete my distribution before retail outlets complete their Christmas buying and their catalogues. He appeared to take that on board - he certainly nodded in all the right places - and undertook to begin printing next week and complete the whole job before the end of the month. And that, my friends, is where things stand at the moment.

Oh joy!, (oh what a relief!).... as of today (15th October) the presses have begun to roll on Beauty/Reality. I have seen the first few pages and I can say the printer may not be greased lightning but he is certainly painstaking - they look good. The detail in the images is superb. I think all you subscribers are going to be very impressed. I think I shall go to bed now and sleep for a fortnight.

After two days (17th October) the presses have stopped, or more correctly the printer has go on to other work and put the book aside until next week. The reason given is that 10 of the 48 negatives that cost me $4000 (Aust.) to have produced have disappeared. The image processors and the two printers are all blaming each other for the missing negatives but it looks like I am going to have to bear the cost - because I have been stuffed around for over a month there is no way of telling at what point they went missing. I also have to bear the extra week delay.

Monday 22nd October: I have replaced the missing negatives at a cost of $700 (because no-one will admit culpability for their disappearance) and theoretically the presses begin rolling again tomorrow.

Saturday 27th October: all pages and the cover are printed. The book is currently in Melbourne being bound. I don't know how long this will take but it is perhaps not too much to hope it might be finished by the end of next week.

Final Update

11th November 1996 (Monday) the book finally arrives from the binders and it looks pretty good. I shall start sending out all the subscribers copies this week. It feels very strange to have all the waiting over. Now to sell the damn thing and get my money back! Thank you to all the longterm subscribers for being so patient (believe me - I had no idea it would take this long!). I hope you are not disappointed. I don't think you will be... I really like it!

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